The South African Further Education and Training Students Association (SAFETSA) commenced its national shut down of all the Technical Vocational Education and Training colleges (TVET) in the country on 19 January 2017. At Kathu’s campus, students also embarked on such movement in order to heart out their grievances.

Student activist and former student representative councillor Motsoethata Mampe addressed the mass meeting during the standstill of the classes. Some of the issues that were raised were pending results, reduction of student enrolment, infrastructure grants, employed but unqualified lecturers and the management arrogance and ignorance towards the students.

Mr Mampe also said that the college could not enrol according to their maximum capacity of their classrooms due to their reduced funding that does not support college operations.

“We would like to attract the attention of the Department of Education for quick remedial solutions and commitment. We also want the college management to allow students to stress their demands as we share the same sentiments,” says Mr Mampe.

The college was shut down for three days awaiting the resolutions from the Education Department. Subsequently, not the college management nor the department responded to the memorandum from the students.

On Tuesday 23 January students converged at the campus to launch another shut down of classes. The student activist continued to say “It is clear that the department does not take us seriously. To attain the attention we seek from them, we will engage in another long week standstill until our grievances are given attention. The classes will be suspended until next week Monday 30 January. We would also like to bring to our parents’ attention that, they must not worry to see their children not attending”.

The students vowed that, if they do not get response by next week, the strike will continue.

On 26 December 2016 at Gasegonyana Town Hall in Kuruman, 15 young beauty queen hopefuls took to the stage to win the title of Little Miss Kuruman 2016 beauty pageant. Little Miss Kuruman founded by Nthabiseng Kgoronyane is for young girls between the ages of 6-12 years old to give them a platform to not only compete through their beauty but also intellectually, to help them build their self esteem and to craft them to be powerful role models within their various communities. “l established this pageant because l would like to empower the young girls in my community and teach them what l know so that tomorrow they may go further than l have gone and to teach them the importance of social responsibility in being the change you want to see in the world. This was also a fundraising event for my trip to London in March for Face of the Globe International Pageant 2017” said Founder, Nthabiseng Kgoronyane.

This is a platform where young girls learn the art of pageantry including how to walk, public speaking, community involvement work and etiquette of being a Pageant Queen. The first workshop was hosted at Kgalagadi Hotel in Batlharos where contestants got training from the founder and skills development from invited speakers such as Lesedi Moshounyane and Olorato Morwe, Miss Heritage Bokone Bophirima 2016 and Nedien Andrews, Miss Northern Cape 2015 and Tsepo Kgatlhane.

All the contestants walked away with prizes from Kathu Gazette and Moloko Hair and Beauty Spa. The winner will receive modeling and public speaking training from some of South Africa ‘s best companies, full photoshoot from Jaipur Niemand Photography and she will be expected to be involved in Charity Work and Mentored by Nthabiseng Kgoronyane. Five contestants from the pageant are set to represent Northern Cape at a National Beauty Pageant competition in the Miss Heritage South Africa 2017 Junior Category later the year. The public was allowed to vote for their favourite contestants through an online voting system called Pageant Vote and Miss Public Choice 2016 is Theetso Elesang with 375 votes followed by second public choice run-up Rebantle Gaelatse with 295 votes.

The event that is to be an annual event believes in the motto that every girl is born a Goddess and is set for greatness. The attendants at the event were entertained by Fusion of RNB, Hip Hop and House Music, Traditional and Hip Hop dances by KayVich, Reffic, Incredible Motion, Remote Kontrol, Dibini Tsa Maemela Kgotsa Cultural group and many more.

The employees of the My Idea Landscaping are hard at work in Siyathemba by making sure the gardens are well watered and taken care of. The My Idea Landscaping was established shortly after the eruption of the Dingleton Resettlement Project. Its purpose is to provide gardening services to the residents of Siyathemba.